Before you read this blog, please read the previous blogs on principles and practices for handling money. From a spiritual standpoint, those principles and practices need to be in place before you think about investing money.
Now . . . investing.
If you are hoping for me to talk about great funds to park your money in or nice tricks to maximize a return on an investment, I’m going to disappoint you. I am not an investment expert, and I don’t want to be one. I know the Bible, not the stock market. I am here to bring a Biblical focus to investing and not to provide the latest strategies on multiplying money.
With that out of the way, allow me to begin with a story about a man I know who, many years ago, spoke to me about investing. He told me that everyone should invest at least x dollars or y per cent of his income in certain types of funds that this man deemed safe. He then said that beyond these safe investments, everyone should invest money in other areas that could yield a higher rate of return.
He had no idea that he was talking to a man who had no disposable income to invest at all, and I distinctly remember thinking that he and I lived in different worlds. This man with his “wonderful” investment advice had no clue about the realities of most people.
Don’t make the mistake that man made. An enormously large swath of the world’s population can’t invest. You can’t invest what you don’t have. So if you are fortunate enough to have the means to invest, be grateful to God for what He gave you and be aware that many people in this world, and perhaps many people in your world, do not have your means. Do not assume that everyone can invest.
Now if you do have money beyond basic giving, beyond the basic needs of your family, and beyond saving for some future need, what should you do with it?
The answer to that question is not the same for everyone. God will ask some to give most or all of that extra money away. He may allow others to spend a portion on something special. He may tell others to invest a part for the future. He may combine any or all of the above in different ratios for different people so that there are a million different answers for a million different people.
And yet there is really one answer to the question of what you should do with extra income. You should submit it to God, seek Him, and allow Him to direct your steps concerning what to do. Then you are in position to hear when He gives His one-in-a-million advice.
The Bible does not directly talk much about investing, either positively or negatively. Investing, in and of itself, is not evil or sinful. I can think of no Biblical condemnation for investing itself. But the righteous woman considers a field and buys it (Pr 31:16). And in the parable of the talents, Jesus praised the first two servants for investing and condemned the wicked servant for not investing. I understand that this parable is about more than money, but it at least endorses the concept of investing, even if it is a parable.
This Biblical vagueness on investing gives us freedom to invest or not as God may lead.
So if you seek God, and He seems to be leading you to invest some money, what now? I am not going to tell you where specifically to invest, but here are some principles to think through to help you keep your investments in perspective.
1. Investing is not the most important thing for you to do with your money. Few verses in the Bible talk about investing, but scads of verses warn against greed and push you to let go of money and give. A heart free from money is more important than a good portfolio, and generous giving is better than smart investing. If investing begins to control you, if it grabs undue attention from your heart, if it keeps you from giving generously and sacrificially, you may need to stop investing and take care of the weightier matters of your own heart.
My wife says that when she was single, she knew guys who were constantly checking their investments. They might meet for dinner, and the guy would check the stock market in the middle of dinner or while cleaning the dishes. This practice told my wife something about the priorities of these men. There may have been nothing wrong with their investing money, but there was something wrong with their undue focus on investing money. If God calls you to invest some of His money, let your heart be free from those investments.
2. Do not support unrighteousness when you invest. As a Christian, you hold the Bible and Jesus to be holy. Why would you then financially invest in businesses that flaunt what is holy? If a business owns a subsidiary that makes pornography, don’t support it. If it consistently makes movies that portray Christians as stupid, immoral, or hypocritical, or movies with messages that continually promote sin, don’t invest in it. If a business publicly promotes homosexuality or advertises in a way that is sexually explicit, or takes an openly hostile position against Christians or a Biblical view, invest somewhere else. Ask yourself if you can in good conscience support the product, message, and practices of a company, and if you can’t, don’t give it your money.
Sometimes you may have no control over your investments. Your employer provides a retirement fund that it or another entity manages, and you may have no choice in where it invests. Fine. I would not lose sleep over that. If you can affect where your money goes, avail yourself of the opportunity, but don’t freely choose to invest in unrighteousness just so you can make a buck. In the West, the culture is certainly getting more overtly hostile to faith in Christ, but you can still find investments that are wholesome and companies that produce products, promote messages, and engage in practices that are Biblically legitimate. There are even investment companies that specialize in investing with a Christian conscience (Thrivent, Eventide).
This consideration is important because when you invest in a business or mutual fund, you are financially supporting and helping what those businesses do, and if their ideas or products go against the kingdom of God, you are using your money to fight against God. When you decide where to invest, look at more than the rate of return. Consider the actual products themselves.
3. Invest more than money. We have been talking about money here because that is the focus of this series. But money is only one resource. In the end, invest your life in the kingdom of God. Your money will follow.
